


Faithfully

by vivilove



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1980s, Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - Rock Band, F/M, Fluff, Jon is a musician, Sansa is his wife, Time Skips, inspired by Journey's song 'Faithfully', probably cheesy idc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:47:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24182335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivilove/pseuds/vivilove
Summary: “You’ve got talent, Jon Snow. You should write a love song someday.”“What, like a power ballad?” he’d snorted, trying to play it cool.She'd cocked one ginger eyebrow and tilted her head to the side and he was already a goner for her before she even said, “What’s wrong with ballads, Jon? Girls love a good ballad.”What’s wrong with ballads? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.
Relationships: Jon Snow/Sansa Stark
Comments: 42
Kudos: 136





	Faithfully

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amymel86](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amymel86/gifts), [chocolateghost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocolateghost/gifts).



> For Amy's word prompts-Microphone and Voice. Beyond that, what can I say? I heard Journey the other day and this is what I did with it *shrugs* It's 1983 all over again, I guess. 
> 
> It's gifted to her but also Brad who's been busy serenading the Jonsa Fam on Tumblr/YouTube with his ukulele for Quaratunes. Here's a link to his latest on YouTube, a tribute to Bob Dylan, [Tangled Up in Blue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXOi_LpB0Z0) Keep jamming, Sunshine 🌞
> 
> I'll be taking a hiatus in June but I'll try and finish my Queen Sansa fic and update After All This Time before then if I can. Fingers crossed!

When he was little more than a kid, one of six guys in a garage band having fun after school and, later, after work with second-hand instruments and shitty amps, Jon Snow had just wanted to be a rock star. They’d practiced their instruments, sang their crappy covers and goofed around for years thinking it was a pipedream.

But then one day, it wasn’t just a pipedream anymore.

They’d all thought they were hot shit getting their first paying gig. Mance’s. Once in a while, Jon still stops in to surprise the old man and his patrons even if it’s still a smoke-filled hole in the wall with nothing decent on tap. Of course, at twenty, he’d not known any better. Didn’t matter back then. No amount of cheap beer could dim his elation when they’d finished their set to the sound of applause from people other than Sam’s little brother and sisters.

Nearly a year into those kind of gigs with the hangovers and bad choices that had followed them, Jon had grown jaded and tired and they weren’t anybody yet.

 _A serious musician first, a rock star second,_ he’d decided.

That’s when he’d started sharing the songs he’d been writing with his bandmates, the ones that were like pieces of his soul. They’d agreed to perform one of them at their next show. He’d been nervous as hell all through warmups…until she’d walked in.

That first little incarnation of the band had been getting good reviews in the local college paper and his old friend Robb Stark had brought his kid sister along to hear them play.

Sansa.

She’d been underage at the time but already so fucking beautiful. The guy at the door probably hadn’t managed to do more than drool at her in her blue dress with her waves of red hair instead of carding her. Jon would’ve drooled, too. Hell, maybe he did some. She’d been dancing with Robb’s friend Theon that night but her eyes had been on Jon the whole set and his eyes had been on her.

 _“I liked that last song the best,”_ she’d told him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and trying her best to ignore how rank he smelled. Performing under the lights in close quarters left them all a sweaty mess.

 _“You did?”_ he’d gulped, thanking his lucky stars that Robb had come over with her to hang out and chat for a few minutes. _“I, uh…wrote it.”_

_“You’ve got talent, Jon Snow. You should write a love song someday.”_

_“What, like a power ballad?”_ he’d snorted, trying to play it cool.

She'd cocked one ginger eyebrow and tilted her head to the side and he was already a goner for her before she even said, _“What’s wrong with ballads, Jon? Girls love a good ballad.”_

What’s wrong with ballads? Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.

She’d come back for the next show…and the next. And every time they’d chat for a few minutes before Robb was ready to go and Jon would fall a little harder for her.

 _“Why do we get up and sing in front of these people every night?”_ Pyp had asked when they’d been paling around after a set.

 _“Because we like it?”_ Sam had replied.

 _“For money?”_ Grenn had offered.

 _“No,”_ Pyp had laughed, shaking his head at them both. _“To woo women, you fools.”_

Jon had been sitting beside Sansa and he’d taken her hand under the table. _“Even if it’s just one woman,”_ he said quietly as they’d shared a look.

She got carded at the next gig after that and her pretty pout hadn’t worked on the hard ass manning the door. But Robb had told Pyp who had told Jon what was what and Jon had snuck her in the backdoor, setting her up with a stool right behind the little stage. The audience saw a lot of the back of Jon’s head that night. It didn’t matter. Pyp was their vocalist but Jon had been mouthing along to all the words just for her.

 _“I’m writing something for you,”_ he’d told her after the show with Sansa caged between the wall and his arms and them both tasting like whiskey sour.

_“Oh yeah? Is it a ballad?”_

_“How’d you guess?”_

_“My favorite musician’s writing me a song. Consider me wooed.”_

_“Get a room, you two,”_ Halder had said, walking in on them a few minutes later and thumping him on the back of the head.

So, they had.

* * *

Jon grimaces, marking out the words and starting again as he sinks deeper into the plush leather seat of the tour bus. He needs a decent sheet of paper but the napkin will do.

“What’re you writing?” Satin asks, clearly buzzed and all smiles after the show.

“Something for Sansa.”

“Yuh-huh,” Satin snickers.

Okay, almost everything he writes is for Sansa. They like giving him shit for adoring her the way he does but he doesn’t care. They don’t have Sansa. And if their most famous songs are power ballads? Well, they can thank Sansa for all the money it makes them.

“Just so you know, Dareon’s bringing some girls back here with him.”

Jon rolls his eyes. Their lead singer always does. “We’re rolling out in an hour.”

“They’ll be rolling with us from the sound of things.”

Groupies. Picked up in one city and deposited in another or at some spot along the highway if he tires of them quick enough. Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am. If he manages to remember, Dareon will give them enough money to make their way home again. If he doesn’t, Jon will.

The band has chopped and changed over the past five years. Management, contracts, studios, record executives, it’s a huge fucking hassle so much more complicated than six guys in a garage with shitty amps. He gets why some guys tend to forget out here or don't want to be tied down in the first place. It's an endless cycle of highways, hotels and concert venues. It's loud and obnoxious and there's constantly someone in your face. But it's also lonely as hell when you can't fall into your own bed most nights with the love of your life.

Sam left Nights Watch years ago but they’re still friends. Jon wishes he could say that of all the guys. Grenn is still officially a part of the band even if he’s not on this tour. Edd and Satin were later additions but Jon likes them both.

Their new lead singer though? He’s talented, Jon will grant him that. He’s brought them to a whole new level of fame, arena gigs and sold out tours. Dareon likes the rock star side of things though and thinks the tour bus should host orgies on the regular. Jon hates his guts.

_Three more weeks until this tour’s done. Then, I don’t have to work with him ever again if I don’t want to._

He’d miss it but he misses her more. During their nightly call last night, Sansa had whispered that she’d like to have a baby. He wants that, too.

Davos, his latest manager, had sagely told him earlier that bands come and go but there’s always work for a talented musician.

_“You’re telling me to quit Nights Watch?”_

_“No. I’m just saying the road is hard on a relationship, lonely for you and lonely for her, too. She’s bound to have her own restless nights wondering where you are and who you might be with.”_

_“Sansa knows I’d never stray.”_

He wouldn’t. He’d sown his wild oats and lived enough like a rock star during that first year back when they were nobody and before he’d met her. It had only left him empty and worn feeling. He’s never looked at anyone but her since the night she danced to his song with Theon but kept her eyes on him. Most of them think he’s crazy. They can think that. They can all piss off, too.

 _“Maybe so but it’s hard, isn’t it?”_ Davos had said.

Yeah, it is.

He hears a high-pitched squeal and laughter a few minutes later. He climbs into his bunk, closes the curtains and loses himself in the sound of his pencil scratching across the napkin with new music filling his head.

* * *

Twelve years since that first gig. He’s not a kid anymore by any stretch of the imagination. He’s got kids of his own along with a loving wife. He’s had a successful studio career but when Edd had called, he’d not been able to say no right off.

_“One last tour, just us, Satin and Todder.”_

_“I don’t know. You can get someone else to sing back-up and play guitar.”_

_“Yeah, but they’re not you. You’re the heart of the band, Jon.”_

It had felt like his band in many ways but he’s never been the lead singer and it was nice to hear someone say it, especially someone like Edd.

_“Final stand of the Nights Watch, huh?”_

_“Something like that.”_

He’d taken his time deciding, thought it to death before he’d ever mentioned it to her even. Sansa and the kids are his world and he won’t give them any reason to doubt it. He doesn’t need this…but a small part of him wants it, wants to feel that old high of performing for an audience again.

“I’d miss you all too much,” he demurs when he finally tells her.

“We’d miss you, too, but you’ll come back again and…” She tugs at his belt buckle, that familiar fire sparking in her blue eyes.

“And?”

“I’ll look forward to welcoming you home properly when you return to my bed.”

Tonight’s the last night. It’s been a good run. He’ll never quit music but he’s done with the life. This final tour has been exhausting. Thirty-three is still young but it feels pretty damn old after he’s spent the night on stage.

His throat will feel raw come morning but Satin pushed to have him as his backup vocals. They’ve been more successful than ever…even if they’re most famous hit is a power ballad. There’s nothing wrong with ballads.

“Are we playing it last tonight?” Edd asks, drum sticks poking out of his back pocket.

“Always,” Jon tells them.

He’s not the lead singer but this _is_ his band in many ways. It’s why he couldn’t ever walk away from it completely. She understood and she’s been by his side all this while.

Satin slips into the dressing room, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Someone came to watch us, guys.”

“About thirty thousand someones came to watch us,” Jon says.

“Yeah but this one’s your number one fan, Snow.”

His breath catches in his throat as his heart starts swelling up in his chest when she slides in behind Satin, a breathtaking smile on her face. She’s wearing that black Halston number she’d bought back at Christmas and her lips are painted red.

“Give us a sec,” he tells the others and they file out without a word. They’ll give him shit later but they won’t in front of her. They respect and admire her too damn much.

 _“She’s a hell of a woman to put up with your moody ass,”_ Pyp had once said, years ago.

She is.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to watch my man sing my song.”

He grins, loving that she knows its her song and, even if it gets played a thousand weddings this year, it’ll always be her song. “Most of 'em are your songs.”

“But this one’s my favorite.”

It is her favorite and knowing that is better than a packed house and a standing ovation. “Where are the kids?”

“Left them with my folks for a couple of days to be here. I was thinking of being your groupie later,” she says with a wink.

There are no groupies for him. There’s just her.

“Come here, baby,” he says, tugging her by the hand so he can hold her close after weeks apart.

“Sing it for me?”

“I’m always singing it for you.”

“Sing it for me now when you can look me in the eye.”

“I’ll be looking for you when I’m on stage.”

“And you won’t be able to see me.”

She huffs and he chuckles. It’s a little game of theirs.

He’s shy of singing when the microphone’s not in front of him and the spotlights aren’t blinding him to the crowd. In studio, he wore a blindfold the first couple of times. God, the guys had howled over that. But Sansa hadn’t. She’d understood.

He pulls her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist so they can sway to all that music that's always in his head.

She said she wanted him to look her in the eyes but he thinks she likes this just as well based on the way she sighs and melts into him when he starts singing soft and low in her ear.

_“And being apart ain’t easy on this love affair_

_Two strangers learn to fall in love again_

_I get the joy of rediscovering you_

_Oh, girl you stand by me, I'm forever yours, faithfully…”_

**Author's Note:**

> Fun facts (because my boy Brad will appreciate the trivia): 
> 
> While there were fans who believed that lead singer Steve Perry penned Journey's famous power ballad, it was written by the band's keyboardist Jonathan Cain. He actually wrote the first few lines 'highway run into the midnight sun' on a paper napkin on a tour bus on their way to Sarasota Springs, New York. 
> 
> And while he wrote the song about the difficulties of being a married man and a touring musician, ironically enough (or not) he and his wife divorced soon after the song's release.
> 
> Thank you for reading :)


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